Hi, we're the Muscovich family ("The Mucko's"); Damian, Michelle, Harry, April and various pets (we'll introduce them along the way).
For years we discussed moving onto some land, for a slower, less crowded life than the one we had in inner northern Melbourne. A place to raise our children, with a connection to community, the land and an understanding of where our food comes from.
So, in late 2015, we purchased a 71 hectare property just outside Heathcote, Victoria. The property consisted of a 3 stall shearing shed with run down stock yards, 2 1/2 machinery sheds (the 1/2 is still falling down at a glacial pace) and, a good number of dams but very few trees. We fell in love with the rolling hills, broad skies, its location and the potential we could see in the land.
Our initial plan was to set up a hop farm and take advantage of the burgeoning craft beer market in Central Victoria. And so Skull Gully Hops was born. Starting with a small test plot, we worked at trying to grow hops in an old sheep paddock. While we had a modicum of success it was also going to take some time to get the hops to a profitable point so we had to find another way to make money off the land.
The property was a sheep farm when we bought it, so it made sense to continue that. We started simply, just fattening wethers and selling them on, but we wanted to do more and better. As we watched the land change with the seasons, we new our land needed help, it need regenerating.
We aim to revitalise the land and increase our productivity through the use of organic and regenerative farming principle while raising high welfare lamb and wool.
In August of 2018 we finally moved into our new home on the property, an off grid, passive solar home, designed by Damian. This gave us the chance to start the next phase of our life as Mucko Family Farm.
Follow along with us as we rejuvenate the land and build our business as we go.
Cheers,
Michelle, Damian, Harry, April & Friends